Sydney native Fabian Joseph won silver in men’s hockey in 1992, 1994

SYDNEY — From one Canadian Olympic hockey captain to another, Fabian Joseph had a few words of advice for Sidney Crosby.

“I’d say the biggest thing is to keep the guys on an even keel and make sure they don’t get too far ahead of themselves,” said Joseph of Sydney, who captained Canada to a silver medal at the 1994 Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway.

“Every game is going to be really important in terms of placement in the medal round. Take it one game at a time and make sure the team is focused. Have the gold medal in mind, but don’t look too far ahead.”

Cole Harbour’s Crosby leads Canada’s Olympic men’s hockey team at the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia. It’s a tournament Joseph has competed in on two occasions: In 1992 in Albertville, France, and again in Lillehammer two years later. He captured a silver medal at both Games.

“Both Olympics, we were ranked sixth or seventh,” said the 48-year-old Joseph, now an assistant with the Moncton Wildcats. “We added some key guys both Olympic years, we also had great coaching, conditioning, and the advantage we had then that they don’t have now is we played together for a full year and played international tournaments.”

Once he finished his junior career with the Toronto Marlboros, Joseph had the option of signing with the Toronto Maple Leafs organization and join the American Hockey League’s St. Catharines Saints, or go to Calgary with the national program. He decided on the national team because he felt he wasn’t ready for the pro ranks, and had the opportunity to get quality coaching from Dave King.

In 1992, Joseph would get his first taste of Olympic action in Albertville. Unlike today’s Games where the men’s hockey rosters consist of professionals, teams were made up of amateur players until the 1998 Games in Nagano, Japan.

That didn’t mean the 1992 Canadian roster lacked in talent. Joseph was joined on the team by future NHLers Eric Lindros, Sean Burke, Joe Juneau, Dave Tippett and Dave Hannan, among others.

Joseph played a key role in his team’s semifinal victory over the Czech Republic, assisting on the winning goal and scoring an insurance tally in a 4-2 victory.

“I don’t know the exact number, but I’m guessing around 13 of those guys went to the NHL right after the Olympics,” said Joseph. “They were obviously a very good hockey team.”

Canada’s roster at the 1994 Games in Lillehammer was a talented ensemble, as well. Joseph led the likes of Paul Kariya, Corey Hirsch, Manny Legace, Greg Johnson, Brian Savage and Czech-born Petr Nedved, who was granted Canadian citizenship at the time. Nedved, now 42, is playing for the Czech Republic this week in Sochi, but Joseph was tasked keeping an eye on him at the 1994 Games.

“We just wanted to make sure he’d stay away from his Czech teammates going up,” Joseph said of Nedved with a laugh. “But he was a big part of that team, a big part of the success of that team and a great teammate.”

Canada faced Sweden in the gold medal game in one of the most memorable Olympic finals ever played. The game went to a shootout, where Sweden’s Peter Forsberg slid a one-handed deke past Hirsch. Kariya couldn’t convert on Swedish netminder Tommy Salo, and Canada took the silver.

“If you had to ask any player on either team prior to the Olympics if they would decide an Olympic gold medal game in a shootout, to a man they probably would have said to play it out as a team,” said Joseph. “But when it did come down to the shootout, it was pretty exciting at the time and everybody was hoping for a positive result, but when you lost, you certainly felt devastated in the fact that you couldn’t help out your teammates. It became a skills competition, and obviously, we came out on the short end of it.”

Joseph said Canada’s team at the Sochi Games needs to come together quickly to repeat as gold medallists.

“We have the top players available and I think they took into account the Olympic ice,” he said. “The fact that it’s a short tournament and anything can happen, there are always four or five teams that can win the thing, but I think Canada has enough experience and depth to make it to the gold medal.”